Related Textbooks:

Focus on the physiological changes that occur when someone encounters an excessively challenging situation.

Relational View of Stress

Holds that stress is a particular relationship between the people and the situations in which they find themselves.

Psychologists measure stress as a stimulus by...

Quantifying the number of stressors a person experiences during a given period.

Two major categories of stressors are...

(1) Major Life Events

(2) Daily Hassles

SRRS

"Social Readjustment Rating Scale" Created by Holmes and Rahe in the late 1960's to quantify stress in terms of major life changes.

Hassles and Uplifts Scale

Measures the frequency and intensity of minor irritations (hassles) and postive events of daily life that may counteract their damaging effects.

Major limitation of looking at stress in terms of stressors is...

Not all people view situations in the same way

Lazarus and Folkman's Two Kinds of Appraisal

Primary Appraisal Secondary Appraisal

Primary Appraisal

Quick assesment of the meaning of a given environmental event for the individual. The outcome of this appraisal determines whether an emotional response might occur.

Advertisement

Secondary Appraisal

Self-assessment of the resources available to cope with stress. When we find ourselves in a stressful situation, we try to figure out what to do about that situation, how to resolve it, or how to make the unpleasant feeling it creates go away.

When stressful situations lead to negative emotions, physiological changes occur in the...

- Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)- Endocrine System- Brain

ANS's Role in Stress

Circulatory System: pump blood to large muscle groups during times of emergencyRespiratory System: provide the oxygen required so that those muscles can function.

Endocrine System's Role in Stress

Consists of the major hormone-releasing glands.

Neuroendocrine System

The hormonal systems involved in emotions and stress. The major structures involved in the system are the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands.

Catecholamines

Hormones that control ANS activation.

Glucocorticoids

Hormones responsible for maintaining the activation of physiological systems during emergencies.

Adrenal-Medullary System

A major neuroendocrine pathway stimulated during stress in which the hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system.

Norepinephrine

A neurotransmiter that activates the sympathetic response to stress, increasing heart rate, rate of respiration, and blood pressure in support of rapid action.

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) Axis

A major neuroendocrine pathway relevant to the stress response involving the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and the adrenal cortex.

Cortisol

The stress homone; it is produced by the body to mobilize the body's energy resoures during stressful situations.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

As defined by Hans Selye, a generalized, nonspecific set of changes in the body that occur during extreme stress. Consists of three stages; alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

Alarm Stage

The phase of the GAS in which all of the body's resources respond to a perceived threat.

Resistance Stage

The phase of the GAS when other ways of coping with the stress are developed.

Exhaustion Stage

The phase of the GAS when all resources for fighting the threat have been depleted and ilness is more likely.

John Mason

In the 1970's he did reaserach that seriously challenged Selye's assumption that the stress response is a general one. Mason showed that an animal's response to a stressor differed depending on its physiological state.

Allostasis

Process by which the body achieves stability through physiological change.

Hippocampus

Brain structure that plays a pivitol role in memory. Contains one of the highest concentrations of cortisol receptors in the brain. Stress reduces neurogenesis in the hippocampus, and it may inhibit the synaptic plasticity meaning less learning.

Coping

Act of dealing with stress or emotions.

Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman's two types of coping strategies.

1. Problem Focused Coping2. Emotion Focused Coping

Problem-Focused Coping

Way of dealing with stress that aims to change the situation that is creating stress.

Emotion-Focused Coping

Way of dealing with stress that aims to regulate the experience of distress. Reappraisal, distancing, escape-avoidance, seeking social support, self-control, and accepting responsiblity.

Emotional Disclosure

Way of coping with stress through writing or talking about the situation.

Social Support

A coping strategy that combines problem and emotion focused coping.

Buffering Hypothesis

Social support works as a buffer only under certain conditions, such as a highly stressful life.

The idea that emotional factors can lead to the occurrence or worsening of ilness.

Health Psychology

The study of psychological factors related to health and illness.

Physiological Reactivity Model

Examines how the sustained physiological activation associated with stress response can affect body systems in such a way as to increase the likelihood that illness or disease occurs.

Health Behavior Approach

Focuses on the behaviors in which people engage, such as diet, exercise, or substance abuse, that may make them more susceptible to illness or may enhance health.

Cardiovascular System

The heart, blood, and all the blood vessels.

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)

The science of how psychological factors relate to changes in the immune system.

Antigen

Any foreign substance that triggers an immune response.

Ader and Cohen

Did an experiment that showed connections between the CNS and the immune system. Soon after scientists discovered that the ANS is linked to immune system structures and can produce certain stress hormones. This evidence led to the field of PNI.

Natural Immunity

Form of immunity that is the first response to antigens.

Acquired Immunity

Immunity provided by antibodies or cells produced in the body in response to specific antigens.

Cellular Immunity

The immune response that occurs when the T lymphocytes (T Cells) fight antigens.

Immunosuppression

Increases susceptibility to disease by reducing the body's ability to fight invading bacteria or viruses or its ability to fight off potentially cancerous cells, or both.

Heart Disesase

Number one killer of both men and women in the US.

Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP)

a way of responding to chellenge or stress, charactarized by hostility, impatience, competitiveness, and time urgency. Greater risk for heart disease they thought.

Karen Matthews

She found that out of all the Type A characteristics, Hostility was the one that correlated most to higher rate of heart disease. Her findings ended the Type A studies and turned focus more towards more specific measures of hostility.

Cardiovascular Reactivity (CVR) Model

Hypothesis that hostility can increase the likelihood of heart disease through at least two different pathways. pg 482

Depression

a mood disorder involving sadness and lethargy, is associated with increased severity of symptoms and increased risk of death from coronary heart disease.

Anorexia Nervosa

an eating disorder in which people cannot maintain 85% of their ideal body weight for their height, have an intense fear of eating, and have a distorted body image.

Bulimia Nervosa

an eating disorder characteried by binge eating and a perceived lack of control during the eating session.

Midfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues have examined the effectiveness of this program for treating a variety of physical and psychological conditions. He found reduced self reported pain and reduction in anxiety, depression, and fear.

HIV replicates by...

latching on to the T-Cells. Hapiness reduces disease progression in men with HIV.

Want to see the other 58 Flashcards in Chapter 12: Stress and Health?JOIN TODAY FOR FREE!